Out of Our Rut: More Day Trips From Benson

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There is definitely a lot to see and do in the area surrounding Benson. Staying at here for 16 nights wasn't quite long enough to see it all - at least at a casual, non-vacation pace. Another day trip we made was to Tombstone. This is an old mining town founded in the late 1800's. Probably best known for the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. It is definitely a tourist town now. Many of the dirt streets are closed to vehicles which allows people and a few stagecoaches to travel about. We skipped the reenactment of the famous gunfight and all the other tourist things. We just walked around town taking in the sights and then stopped at the old Courthouse building that is now a museum run by the Arizona State Parks. We had brought along our pass so we could visit for free. I'm not sure we even spent 2 hours in town.

Downtown Tombstone

Carriage Ride Anyone?

Dusty Street on Windy Day

Rough Way to Go in Tombstone

Old Court Room

We did stop at Boothill Graveyard on our way out of town. It was only $3 each and since there was a geocache that required info from within the graveyard we checked it out. The 3 guys killed at the O.K. Corral are buried there as are many others. The most common name on the graves was "Unknown". As it turned out, we got the information for the cache but must have counted something wrong because we had no luck finding the actual cache outside the grounds. We headed back to Benson via the former town of Fairbank. This area is part of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. The San Pedro River runs through here and as a result there are some huge trees in the area. Not at all like we have become accustomed to in southern Arizona.

I Used to Work with a Les Moore

Poor George

Boothill Graveyard

Another interesting day trip was to Fort Bowie National Historic Site. The drive from Benson is just over 60 miles so it doesn't take long to get there. But when I say "get there", I simply mean the parking lot. To actually get to the old Fort and the ranger station, one must hike in 1.5 miles (one way). In my mind, for some reason, I had the perception that the area was going to be flat and desolate. I was half right. It is desolate but a decent hike with mountains surrounding you almost the whole way.

This Prevents Many Visitors

Nice Views Along the Hike

Old Cemetery on Way to Fort Bowie

By being this remote, there aren't a lot of visitors. I'm not sure we saw more than a dozen people beside the ranger and volunteer. Apparently there is a way to park closer to the ranger station and fort if you have an ADA placard. We used an elaborate geocache as our tour guide. It took us to about 20 locations where we could read information from the interpretive signs. The yuccas were just blooming and were quite beautiful. The flowers have a deep red tint to them before they open and reveal a large off-white flower often with many dozens of blooms per plant.

Yucca Starting to Bloom

Approaching Old Fort Bowie

Fort Remnants

Blowing in the Breeze

View Out the Door?

There are two options for the return trip to the parking area. One is to backtrack the way you came or you can follow the trail behind the ranger station and climb up a few hundred feet overlooking the fort. We picked the latter and were rewarded with some great views.

Overlooking Fort Bowie

Great Distance View from Here

Even though Chiricahua National Monument is reasonably close to Fort Bowie, we didn't try to visit both sites in the same day. I suppose it could be done but we didn't want to rush either place. Chiricahua was the place we wanted to go to when we were camped in Rodeo NM over the Xmas holiday season but snow on the mountain prevented us from doing so. It would have been closer if we had been staying in Willcox but it was okay from Benson.

Entrance to Chiricahua

It's hard to believe the difference in terrain between Chiricahua and the adjacent Coronado National Park. We had been experiencing a lot of windy days in the area but had thought they were to be less on the day we went there. Well let's just say we were VERY wrong about that. There were constant 20-25 MPH winds and with all the various rock formations and canyons, we seemed to be in a constant wind tunnel. But the beauty of the park is well worth the effort.

Incredible Beauty

On the Way to Visitor's Center

After checking out the visitor's center, we headed to the Echo Canyon trailhead. This trail ties in with two others making a 3.2 mile loop. There are some incredible rock formations along the way. It's hard to believe they were all created naturally. One rock looked to be so precariously balanced that I was certain the strong winds would topple it onto us as we passed by. My apologies for so many pictures, I had a hard time picking my favorites and they don't do the place justice.

A Leaner

Precarious Perch

Pick Out the Faces

We did a bit more exploring at Massai Point. An earthcache had us wandering all around the nature trail to get answers to some questions about the geology of the area. The wind was especially strong up here. One of the viewing stations was placed atop a stone column. The stonework was quite nice but I suspect the height would have been too extreme for me.